To the Amsoil die hards, no opinions from me, just picked this up from the Harley guys, thought it was interesting.
Post 1
Just got back last Sunday from a 21 day, 7,500 mi trip out to the west coast and back. Thought I would share my experience with an oil issue I had.
Leaving Oh and heading to Sturgis is about 1,400 mi for us. I left on 7/5 and it was in the mid to high 90's all the way out. At about half way through S.D. I started hearing more engine noises, especially lifter noise. After we got to Sturgis and checked into the motel we wanted to head up to Deadwood. Went out to start the bike and the motor made so much noise I thought the motor was going to self destruct. Lifter noise was really bad with a very loud top end rattle or primary noise when when I revved it up.
Decided to head for Black hills HD to have it checked out. The head mechanic came out to hear the motor and he said, " that's the most noise he ever heard a motor make". Well, I had to have the motor taken apart to see what had happened. When he drained the motor oil, the oil was as thin as water and was black as tar. This after 1,400 mi. In order to make sure no damage was done to the motor, the motor was disassembled, removing the top end, cams and primary cover (as it sounded like it was rattling in the primary).
After taking a mic and checking everything, no damage was found and everything was normal. I felt I had to at least do this much tear down to make sure I had a motor that would finish the 7,500 mi trip.
Conclusion: The Amsoil probably lost it's vicosity in the high 90 degree heat and had literally burned up, even though I maintained oil pressure (thankfully). The engine noise's I had were from the viscosity not taking up the engine tolerances built into all motors. The motor was put back together and HD syn was put in. I completed my trip, across the desert twice and riding in temps over 110 degrees, with no more problems. Was it bad oil? You make the call, I am only giving the facts as it happened. I have since replaced all three holes with Redline and will now see how this oil runs. Sorry for the long story.
Follow up post.
Man, when I read the original post I had to do a double take to be sure it wasn't me that had posted it and forgot I did because the exact thing happen to me last summer in Arkansas on a trip. Temps were hovering near 100 degrees in June and a buddy and I were on a 6 day trip to the Ozarks coming from the Houston area. The first day of the trip we stopped for lunch around noon. When I came out from lunch and fired the bike I noticed some engine tapping that I had never heard before. It wasn't super bad so I just rode on and it eventually cleared out. Later on that evening we were close to Hot Springs Arkansas and found a hotel for the evening. Several hours later we came out to the bikes to ride somewhere for dinner and when I fired the bike it was tapping so loud I thought something may come apart. My buddy come over and listened. We checked around, checked the oil level, it was fine. I had Amsoil 20w-50 with roughly 1700 miles on the oil. Amsoil oil filter also. It eventually quieted down some so we rode on to dinner. The next morning we rode straight to Lander's HD in Hot Springs to have it checked out. They said the oil went bad and had broke down. So they changed my oil and filter. Never had the problem again. True story to a T. Since the trip I have switched to Mobil 1 and went back to HD oil filters. Been happy ever since with no more problems. Fortunately I didn't have to tear into my engine like they did Dave's to figure it out. I contacted Amsoil via email about the whole experience and the Amsoil rep came to the conclusion that he thought I acutally had an oil filter go bad instead of the oil going bad. Something to do with the anti-drain valve. Not sure if he was right or not but I didn't care. I could not use anymore Amsoil products after that experience. I was high and mighty on Amsoil prior to that. I realize it was hot out but I could not help but mention to the rep that there slogan "ride hard, run cool" was the exact opposite for me. I acutally like the way my bikes runs with the Mobil 1 better than the Amsoil did before the experience. Like they say, I guess each may be different.
Follow up post
I am not qualified to say that Amsoil is good or bad as I have never used it, I worked for a company that had a fleet of new Chevrolet trucks, one of the VPs, sold Amsoil so he talked them into putting it in his and two ( out of 14 ) of the others,( to save money on extended oil changes) in just a little while they all three sounded like "thrashing machines" and two of them had major ( warranty ) engine work. The VPs didn't get that, he fell asleep and totaled his ! the others didn't have any major problems . Just a fluke , right?
Follow up post.
Im glad Im not the only one it's happened to. I have logged about 100,000 miles in the last 5 years on two different E-Glides. While out on a run across the desert my motor started making a LOT of noise. It sounded like it was coming apart. I limped it home and drained what looked like water out of the motor. The Amsoil 20/50 I had in there lost it's viscosity like no other oil I have ever seen. I didn't do any tear down or anything like that. I filled it with Redline 20/60 and fired it up the clatter went away after a few seconds and then ALL WAS GOOD IN THE WORLD AGAIN! Back to the nice quite running engine. I will never run Amway oil again. This happened about 3 years ago. I never posted about it as I figured nobody was going to listen and all the Amway oil lovers would just give me grief over it.
Here is the thread:
Amsoil experience - Harley Davidson Forums
Post 1
Just got back last Sunday from a 21 day, 7,500 mi trip out to the west coast and back. Thought I would share my experience with an oil issue I had.
Leaving Oh and heading to Sturgis is about 1,400 mi for us. I left on 7/5 and it was in the mid to high 90's all the way out. At about half way through S.D. I started hearing more engine noises, especially lifter noise. After we got to Sturgis and checked into the motel we wanted to head up to Deadwood. Went out to start the bike and the motor made so much noise I thought the motor was going to self destruct. Lifter noise was really bad with a very loud top end rattle or primary noise when when I revved it up.
Decided to head for Black hills HD to have it checked out. The head mechanic came out to hear the motor and he said, " that's the most noise he ever heard a motor make". Well, I had to have the motor taken apart to see what had happened. When he drained the motor oil, the oil was as thin as water and was black as tar. This after 1,400 mi. In order to make sure no damage was done to the motor, the motor was disassembled, removing the top end, cams and primary cover (as it sounded like it was rattling in the primary).
After taking a mic and checking everything, no damage was found and everything was normal. I felt I had to at least do this much tear down to make sure I had a motor that would finish the 7,500 mi trip.
Conclusion: The Amsoil probably lost it's vicosity in the high 90 degree heat and had literally burned up, even though I maintained oil pressure (thankfully). The engine noise's I had were from the viscosity not taking up the engine tolerances built into all motors. The motor was put back together and HD syn was put in. I completed my trip, across the desert twice and riding in temps over 110 degrees, with no more problems. Was it bad oil? You make the call, I am only giving the facts as it happened. I have since replaced all three holes with Redline and will now see how this oil runs. Sorry for the long story.
Follow up post.
Man, when I read the original post I had to do a double take to be sure it wasn't me that had posted it and forgot I did because the exact thing happen to me last summer in Arkansas on a trip. Temps were hovering near 100 degrees in June and a buddy and I were on a 6 day trip to the Ozarks coming from the Houston area. The first day of the trip we stopped for lunch around noon. When I came out from lunch and fired the bike I noticed some engine tapping that I had never heard before. It wasn't super bad so I just rode on and it eventually cleared out. Later on that evening we were close to Hot Springs Arkansas and found a hotel for the evening. Several hours later we came out to the bikes to ride somewhere for dinner and when I fired the bike it was tapping so loud I thought something may come apart. My buddy come over and listened. We checked around, checked the oil level, it was fine. I had Amsoil 20w-50 with roughly 1700 miles on the oil. Amsoil oil filter also. It eventually quieted down some so we rode on to dinner. The next morning we rode straight to Lander's HD in Hot Springs to have it checked out. They said the oil went bad and had broke down. So they changed my oil and filter. Never had the problem again. True story to a T. Since the trip I have switched to Mobil 1 and went back to HD oil filters. Been happy ever since with no more problems. Fortunately I didn't have to tear into my engine like they did Dave's to figure it out. I contacted Amsoil via email about the whole experience and the Amsoil rep came to the conclusion that he thought I acutally had an oil filter go bad instead of the oil going bad. Something to do with the anti-drain valve. Not sure if he was right or not but I didn't care. I could not use anymore Amsoil products after that experience. I was high and mighty on Amsoil prior to that. I realize it was hot out but I could not help but mention to the rep that there slogan "ride hard, run cool" was the exact opposite for me. I acutally like the way my bikes runs with the Mobil 1 better than the Amsoil did before the experience. Like they say, I guess each may be different.
Follow up post
I am not qualified to say that Amsoil is good or bad as I have never used it, I worked for a company that had a fleet of new Chevrolet trucks, one of the VPs, sold Amsoil so he talked them into putting it in his and two ( out of 14 ) of the others,( to save money on extended oil changes) in just a little while they all three sounded like "thrashing machines" and two of them had major ( warranty ) engine work. The VPs didn't get that, he fell asleep and totaled his ! the others didn't have any major problems . Just a fluke , right?
Follow up post.
Im glad Im not the only one it's happened to. I have logged about 100,000 miles in the last 5 years on two different E-Glides. While out on a run across the desert my motor started making a LOT of noise. It sounded like it was coming apart. I limped it home and drained what looked like water out of the motor. The Amsoil 20/50 I had in there lost it's viscosity like no other oil I have ever seen. I didn't do any tear down or anything like that. I filled it with Redline 20/60 and fired it up the clatter went away after a few seconds and then ALL WAS GOOD IN THE WORLD AGAIN! Back to the nice quite running engine. I will never run Amway oil again. This happened about 3 years ago. I never posted about it as I figured nobody was going to listen and all the Amway oil lovers would just give me grief over it.
Here is the thread:
Amsoil experience - Harley Davidson Forums
